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visit REVIEWS CINEMA
Michael Fassbender as
Macbeth. Marion Cotillard as
Lady Macbeth. Snowtown
director Justin Kurzel tackling
Shakespeare’s great tragedy. If
Macbeth isn’t already on your must-
see list for these reasons, put it there,
pronto.
There’s nothing more satisfying
for a moviegoer than going into
a film with high expectations and
having them met. Surrounded by
positive buzz following its premiere at
Cannes, Kurzel’s Macbeth is the best
cinematic take of the Bard’s play to
date – yes, even better than Roman
Polanski’s 1971 version, which it will
no doubt replace as the go-to film for
students come exam time.
Few would have expected Kurzel to
follow Snowtown with Shakespeare,
and the South Australian filmmaker
has delivered another incredibly
austere interpretation of material that
demands a dark touch. Nobody does
grim like this guy. Stark visuals and a
moody minimalist score (from Kurzel’s
brother Jed) create a sustained sense
of doom and gloom which hangs over
the film like the fog that shrouds the
Highlands; much of the action unfolds
in a dreamlike landscape beneath
a blood-red sky, filled with smoke,
mist, witches, and soldiers being
“unseamed from knave to chops”.
In this kingdom, chaos and madness
reigns.
Shakespeare’s works ultimately
live or die on the strength of
the performances, and Michael
Fassbender was born to play the
former Thane of Glamis turned tyrant
King of Scotland, whose ambition to
ascend the throne leads to murder
most foul, civil war and his ultimate
downfall. Tormented, intense and
mumbling into his ginger beard, he’s
a charismatic and volatile despot.
Marion Cotillard’s scheming Lady
Macbeth is more subdued than
expected but still as ruthless as
her husband, and underplaying
her anguished attempt to assuage
her guilt (“Out damn spot!) works
beautifully.
A triumph in every department,
"The Scottish Film" is bleak, brutal and
brilliant. Scott Hocking
FURTHER VIEWING: Macbeth (1971), Coriolanus
A film full of sound and fury, signifying a great Shakespeare adaptation.
MACBETH RELEASED: Oct 1
DIRECTOR: Justin Kurzel
CAST: Michael Fassbender, Marion
Cotillard, Paddy Considine
RATING: CTC
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026 OCTOBER 2015